Three Little Words
by Bellatrix wannabe 89
Summary: Spoilers for Rescue. Olivia looks at the three little words at the bottom of the painting and realizes how much of a lie they really are.  Calvin doesn't belong to her... Not anymore.  EO friendship or romance; could be viewed either way.  One Shot.


I own no one

Takes place after Rescue. EO friendship or relationship could go either way.

Olivia's apartment, 11:23 PM

"_By Calvin Benson_."

The black words stared up at her on the crisp school paper as she drank her third bottle of wine, not wasting any valuable drinking time by taking the time to pour it into a glass.

Her eyes moved over the three simple otherwise meaningless words to anyone else. It was a lie. He wasn't hers; he didn't belong to her anymore. He had signed the picture that way because she had rescued him, and just several short hours ago she had failed him. Those tiny black words were nothing but a lie.

The picture itself really was beautiful to her. It showed Olivia smiling, something that Calvin had managed to make her do on a day to day basis rather it be from his wit or just doing something an ordinary child would do that only parents had the experience of dealing with. From lying to him and saying she had loved school just to make him feel better about going, to arguing with him about going to bed, to helping him with his homework at eleven a clock at night on a Sunday. But she knew that that was a lie as well. Why display such an obvious false hood?

The painting had immortalized her happiness when she knew she would never be happy again.

Olivia took another swig of wine and closed her eyes in defeat as there was a small knock on the door.

She put the picture down on the coffee table and steadied herself as she stood up and walked over to the door taking a slight tumble between her couch and the door.

She looked through the peep hole and groaned loudly at the person on the other side, not wanting to talk to anyone at all, but especially not him.

She undid the chain lock and opened the door and glared at the person on the other side of her door.

"What do you want?" she asked Elliot sourly.

"You seemed kind of upset when you left today," said Elliot, "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Olivia held up the nearly empty wine bottle. "'A little upset'? Bit of an understatement, wouldn't you say?"

Elliot eyed the wine bottle in her hand wearily seeing two others on the coffee table. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Does it matter?" Olivia scoffed as she took another swig, emptying that one as well. "It's not like I have to be up early to make anyone's lunch or stay up late to tuck anybody in or help with anyone's homework. I am a free woman with no responsibilities and I have every right in the world to have a few drinks."

"Three bottles of wine doesn't equal a few drinks it equals drunk."

Olivia glowered at him and turned around and walked away from him. "What the hell do you want anyway? Came to gloat?"

Elliot narrowed his eyes in confusion as he walked in after her, shutting and locking the door behind him. "Why would I be gloating?"

Olivia shrugged as she turned around to face him, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "That you were right. That I got too attached to him knowing I wasn't gonna keep him forever."

Elliot walked over to her. "Olivia, I would never do that to you."

Tears appeared in her eyes and she hastily wiped them away. "Whatever, just leave," she muttered.

She walked back over to her couch and sat down on it and picked up the picture again.

Elliot walked over to her and sat down beside her and looked at the painting as well. "It's a nice likeness."

Olivia took a shuddering breath and bit her bottom lip. "I'm never gonna see him again am I?"

"You don't know that," Elliot told her softly. "You can contest the decision in court, you can get him back."

"He's with his biological grandparents and I'm just some stranger off the street. They're not going to give me custody."

Olivia felt tears roll down her face and she put the picture down on the coffee table once more. "You were right. I grew too attached and I shouldn't have. I should have dropped him off at ACS the moment I got the notification, let them deal with him."

Elliot shook his head. "No you shouldn't have. You gave that little boy more love then he probably ever felt with his mother. And even if you never see him again he is going to remember that the rest of his life."

Olivia let out a sob and placed a hand over her mouth in a failed attempt to cover it up. "I miss him so much!"

Elliot reached over and rubbed her back in soothing motions. "Its okay, Olivia, I understand."

"No you don't!" Olivia shouted as she stood up dangerously wobbling. "You never had the only thing you love in this world literally ripped out of your arms and dragged away from you because some junkie whore wanted to make you suffer because she thinks you ruined her life! You never had to hear your… your child scream for you to help them and you can't do a damn thing for them knowing you'll never see them again! You don't know what it's like to lose the only thing that makes your life worth living! So don't you dare tell me you understand!"

Her tears now flowed faster down her face and she made no move to wipe them away. Elliot had remained understandably silent during her entire rant. She picked up the painting and shoved it into Elliot's chest.

"He wanted to be MY son!" she screamed through her desperate sobs. "He loved me and that little cunt took him from me for payback for something I didn't even do!"

Then without warning she grabbed one of the empty bottles and hurled it as hard as she could across the room making it shatter into a hundred pieces as it impacted on the refrigerator.

Elliot jumped up and grabbed her by the wrists to prevent her from throwing any more bottles or from hurting herself and held her close to him so she couldn't escape his grasp.

"Let go of me!" Olivia screamed as she struggled against his hold.

"You need to calm down," Elliot muttered in her ear. "I know you're hurting worse then you probably ever have or ever will, but I'm not gonna let you hurt yourself!"

With a defeated sob she sank to the floor as did Elliot.

"He's gone!" she sobbed to the point of hysterics. "Elliot, he's gone!"

Finally letting go of her wrists he wrapped his arms around her tightly as did she. She buried her head in his shoulder and the sobs rocked both of their bodies.

"It's okay," he whispered softly in his ear feeling his own tears fall down her face. "It'll be okay, I promise…"

Olivia shook her head still letting out the heart wrenching sobs. "No it's not! It'll never be okay! It'll never be okay…!"

Hours later, Olivia lay down on the couch sleeping, unable to go into the bedroom where she knew Calvin's things still were. Elliot was sleeping beside her, the two bodies pressed up against one another as tight as they could so they could both share the small yet comfortable couch. After she had calmed down enough he had gotten the glass from the bottle cleaned up and taped her beloved painting securely back on the fridge.

A low knock awoke Olivia who grumbled softly and picked her pounding head up, some traces of the alcohol still in her system.

She looked at her watch and groaned as she saw it was only 4:30, far too early to be awake with the makings of a pounding hangover.

She put her head back down on the pillow and tried to fall back asleep but the knocking persisted. Olivia half considered waking up Elliot but decided better against it. He was on call tomorrow and had to be up in an hour and a half anyway.

Olivia sighed heavily and maneuvered her way out of Elliot's embrace and stumbled off the couch and over to the door.

She took one look out of the peep hole and felt anger so intense she honestly could have killed the people on the other end of the door and not think twice about it.

She attempted to control the shaking in her hands so she could unlock her door and wrenched the door open.

Olivia opened her mouth to scream at Vivian and the agent but stopped short after seeing who the agent was carrying, sleeping, in his arms.

"May we come in?" the agent whispered softly as he adjusted Calvin so that he was more comfortable.

Olivia glowered at the two of them and crossed her arms. "You got Calvin leave me alone. You can come back and get his stuff tomorrow."

"We're not here to collect his stuff," Vivian muttered. "We're here to…" Tears began to roll down her face. "I'm sorry."

Olivia scoffed in disbelief and took a step towards her and she quickly backed away. "You're sorry? You take Calvin away from me and now you're sorry?"

Vivian sniffed and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "Yeah… I mean… I was angry, and pissed off, and I wanted to hurt you like you hurt me."

"I didn't do anything to you!" Olivia snarled. "Did I pull the trigger on Sarah? Did I rape your mom and get her pregnant with you?"

"You ruined my life!" Vivian shot back, gaining a loud 'shh!' from the case worker.

Vivian took a deep breath before she continued running a hand through her matted hair. "I do love him, you know. I'm his mother, I always loved him. More than drugs, more than Sar-… more than drugs and I know I screwed up his life and that he doesn't deserve that.

I was telling the truth, Olivia. You do deserve him and you do love him and you can give him everything I can't… You can probably give him more love then two people he's never met before in his life who doesn't give two shits if they have a grandson or not."

Olivia kept quiet, unable to believe what Vivian was saying.

Vivian sniffed and furiously wiped her eyes. "He told me… he told me he hated me. He never said that before. But what hurt the most was he didn't hate me because of me leaving him, but because I was taking him away from you." She chuckled in an attempt to cover up her tears. "My own son couldn't care less about me leaving him. He only cared that he was leaving you. I hate you for what you did to me and for what you did to Sarah, but I love my son, and I can't have him hating me because I want you to suffer for what you did to us."

Olivia opened her mouth and cleared her throat, hardly daring to believe it. "Vivian, what… what are you saying?"

Vivian took a deep breath and closed her eyes in defeat. "I'm revoking Calvin's grandparent's rights and giving them to you. I want you to have custody of Calvin… permanently."

Olivia knew that it would awaken both Elliot and Calvin but she didn't care. She let out a loud cry of joy and hugged Vivian tight around the neck.

"Liv, you alright?"Elliot's muffled and tired voice rang out but she ignored it.

"Wassgoingon?" Calvin muttered as his eyes blinked open. The moment he saw Olivia his eyes widened and he scrambled out of the case workers hold and fell to the floor, just landing on his feet.

"Olivia!" he shouted as he ran up and hugged her tightly, Olivia letting out another joyful cry and hugged him tightly, afraid of letting go and losing him again.

"Please don't let them take me back!" he cried.

"I won't," Olivia promised him. "I'll never let anyone else take you again."

Vivian sniffed loudly but both Olivia and Calvin ignored it as did they ignore the sounds of Elliot getting up from the couch and walk to the door. "Olivia, what's going on?"

The moment he spotted the two of them he stopped dead and looked from Vivian who had her own tears running down her face, to the case worker who seemed bored of all that was going on, to Olivia and Calvin who was still embracing, back to Vivian. "What the hell's going on?"

"I gave her permanent custody of Calvin," Vivian answered as she wiped her eyes.

Elliot opened his mouth before he closed it again. He was silent for a moment before he spoke. "What made you change your mind?"

Vivian shrugged and looked down at Olivia. "I'd rather my son love me for doing something for someone I hate then hate me for doing something for myself."

Olivia finally stood up while Calvin still hugged her and she kept on arm wrapped securely around him as if to let him know she wasn't going to let anyone take him again. "Thank you… I know how hard this must be for you."

Vivian shrugged. "Whatever." She then turned to Calvin and smiled warmly at him but he refused to do the same for her. She bent down near him and bit her lip in an attempt to keep from sobbing as he clung tighter to Olivia while Olivia held him even closer.

"I love you… so much, Calvin," she whispered softly.

Calvin stayed silent and simply looked at her. After several moments Vivian let out a tiny sob and held open her arms. "Can I- can I at least get a hug good bye?"

Calvin looked up at Olivia as if asking for permission and she nodded so gently he almost missed it.

Finally letting go of her, he wrapped his arms around Vivian with nowhere near the amount of eagerness or love he had shown Olivia just moments ago.

Vivian hugged him tightly letting out a quick sob before she released him and stood back up and Olivia put her arm around his shoulders and brought him near her.

Vivian sniffed and wiped her eyes before turning to Olivia once more.

"Thank you," Olivia repeated softly.

Vivian simply shrugged before she turned to the case worker. "I want to go… now."

The case worker nodded before he turned to Olivia. "I'll be by with the forms tomorrow… Have a good night, Ms. Benson."

With a nod he and Vivian turned and left without a single glance backwards, leaving the three alone.

Once they had gotten onto the elevator Olivia turned towards Calvin and couldn't help but smile, the head and body ache she had experienced from the heavy drinking almost completely gone.

"Let's get you inside," Olivia said softly, still hardly daring to believe what had just happened.

Before Calvin moved he looked up at her. "Is this really permanent?"

"Yeah. She's never gonna be able to take you away again."

"Do you promise?"

Olivia nodded. "I promise."

Calvin's face broke out into a large grin and wrapped his arms around her once more. "I love you, Olivia," he whispered softly.

Olivia closed her eyes as tears of joy ran down her face. "I love you too."

After they released one another Olivia stood up and turned towards Elliot who smiled at the scene in front of him. "I think I'm gonna go home now, leave the two of you alone."

Olivia grinned at him and went over and hugged him. "Thank you."

"You never have to thank me for this," Elliot told her as he hugged her back.

They let go of one another and Elliot smiled at Calvin before he left the tiny little family alone for the night.

When they walked inside, Olivia passed the picture on the fridge and ran her fingers over the paper fondly, knowing just how true the picture as well as the three black words really was.

"_By Calvin Benson_."

Please Review. And I really hope that Vivibitch comes to her senses and gives Calvin back to the only person who actually cares about her.


End file.
